


Calculus and Tea

by Chelonie



Category: Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie
Genre: AI clones, Gen, Post-Canon, Siblings, ancillary clones, r2sid 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-24 07:29:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14350791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chelonie/pseuds/Chelonie
Summary: Queter and Uran have lunch and talk about their assignments.





	Calculus and Tea

Uran had always enjoyed being around children. So Queter wasn't surprised that he had taken an assignment in the Ancillary Creche. Even though the cloned children's minds were linked to their Ships, they spent most of their time on Athoek Station, where there were actual childcare facilities.

"They are so quiet," Queter said to Uran, when she came to pick him up for lunch. There were children everywhere, none older than three, and only a couple of them were fussing – a dispute between a couple of the toddlers that none of the adults were making an effort to break up.

"They communicate with their Ships, and with each other, through their implants. It is taking them longer to learn to talk than human children, even though the knowledge is in their minds. They find it easier to use implants than speech." Uran said. "That's why Station has assigned more humans to work in the Creche, rather than all Ancillaries. We want the Ancillary children to grow up knowing everything that humans know, as well as what Ships know. We're making plans to start mixing them with human children the same age. Not for the whole day - that wouldn't be good for either group. But we can start with short play periods, and see how it goes."

"That should be interesting," Queter said. "I hope it's good for the human children." She remembered her own childhood. Her cousins taught her games, but the games were all about harvesting tea. Then she and Uran taught the games to the younger children in turn. 'Play periods'... that was such a foreign concept.

They left the Creche together, and found a place to eat lunch - not a tea shop. It _was_ possible to find possible to find restaurants on Station that weren't focused on tea. Queter said grace, drawing a few stares, but fuck them and their multiple gods.

"How are your studies?" Uran asked.

"Difficult. Challenging." Queter said. "I'm so far behind all the other students, and I really hate using drugged studies to catch up, so I only do that for mathematics. It was going to take me years to get all the forms of calculus I needed otherwise." After being Interrogated, she had decided that if she was going to get drugged for _Raughd fucking Denche_ , she could probably bear being drugged for the Aptitudes. So now she was studying engineering, and she hoped to be qualified in time to help with the plans to build three new Stations with the AI cores the Tyrant had left behind, including a Station in the Ghost System.  Queter laughed. "It's pretty wonderful. I love going to bed with a tired brain."

"I'll leave the maths to you!" Uran said. "I see those formulas you work on, and it makes my head spin!"

"That's okay, I see those children running around, and I think I'd rather pick tea!" Queter said. Uran looked down at his meal, and Queter was silent for a moment, before saying, "I shouldn't joke about that," in a quiet voice.

"There's nothing wrong with picking tea as an assignment," Uran said. Most of their family were still picking tea, even though they were no longer enslaved by Fosyf Denche. The children were in education now, instead of in the fields, and family shared in the profits. There was enough food for all. Queter knew Grandfather would have delighted in calculus, just to see the numbers dance. Some of her cousins could have gone far if they'd taken the aptitudes. But they had family, and safety, in the plantations. If Queter and Uran were building better lives for themselves on Station, their family was also building better lives for themselves downwell. And some of the children would choose to take the aptitudes, when the time came.

"No, there is nothing wrong with picking tea," Queter agreed. And if Uran noticed that she never drank tea herself, never ate food flavoured with tea – he never said anything. Neither of them had escaped the Denches unwounded.

**Author's Note:**

> I know Breq tried to matchmake with Sphene and Queter, but how that was suppose to work when Queter had barely any education, I have no idea! I think Sphene would be a lot fussier than that.
> 
> Uran seemed to have a talent for diplomacy, which makes him perfect for childcare - particularly childcare of a new lifeform!
> 
> Comments are always welcome! <3


End file.
